LETTER FROM PROFESSOR C.' U. SHEPARD. 371 



New Haven, in possession of unrestricted access to all the 

 scientific departments of the Institution. He manifested 

 the deepest interest in favoring and assisting me in all my 

 studies, permitting me to examine freely the treasures of 

 the Gibbs Cabinet of Minerals, then the only one of 

 note in the country, and encouraged me to engage in 

 chemical researches, accompanied by the generous per- 

 mission of ordering for the Laboratory whatever might be 

 needed in their prosecution. After thus spending a few 

 months, a vacancy occurred in the office of Assistant to 

 the Professor of Chemistry. The Professor at once ten- 

 dered the situation to myself. It was the more gladly ac- 

 cepted, because it gave me the certainty of a longer and 

 closer intimacy with my instructor than I could have ex- 

 pected under any other circumstances. In particular, it 

 brought me more frequently to his house, and gradually 

 into intimate relations with his family, where, I soon dis 

 covered, that the most attractive side of his character was 

 displayed. In all the virtues of the family and the household 

 I must ever esteem him as one of the worthiest and the 

 best. It is not permitted me to speak of many instances 

 of goodness with which, in this sphere, I became acquainted. 

 They are, however, indelibly impressed upon my memory, 

 and interwoven with the inmost fibres of my heart ; and 

 yet I cannot wholly avoid allusion to the family adoption 

 of one who preceded by several years her foster-parents 

 to the better world, and in whose history my own brightest 

 earthly joys were written. An auspicious destiny affixed 

 us for almost a life-long residence as his immediate neigh- 

 bors, and for this whole period no shadow intervened to 

 mar our happiness, or to dim our admiration of the character 

 of Professor Silliman. He was a man so nearly without 

 faults, that if he had them they were so over-dazzled by his 

 excellences you could not detect them. It also strikes me 

 in comparing him with others that his virtues were more 

 nearly natural than in these. For whereas it seems to 



